Realist by inclination, childhood studies, dialectic and bodily concerns: an interview with Priscilla Alderson

ABSTRACT

In this wide-ranging interview Priscilla Alderson discusses how she came to research parental and childhood consent and became a sociologist and how, late in her career, she became convenor of the critical realism group started by Roy Bhaskar at the Institute for Education in London. She discusses aspects of her seminal research over the years on multiple subjects, such as the rights of children, and reflects on what critical realism has added to her social research.

KEYWORDS:

• Priscilla Alderson
• critical realism
• childhood studies
• second wave feminism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For information on and access to Alderson’s work visit: http://ucl.ac.uk//browse/profile?upi=DPALD60

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4002-4501.

2 Note from Jamie see Priscilla’s blog on the Critical Realism Network: http://criticalrealismnetwork.org/2021/03/10/critical-realism-for-health-and-illness-research/.

3 Note from Jamie, for an example visit: https://dscal.ioe.ac.uk/event/3345070.

4 Note from Jamie: see, for example, British Paediatric Association (1992); Alderson (2001a).

5 Note from Jamie: for example, re ethics, Priscilla and colleagues have made numerous contributions to the European Association of Centers of Medical Ethics (EACME) publication, Bulletin of Medical Ethics. The EACME has become a major network of bioethics researchers. See, for example, Alderson (1990c, 1992a, 1995a, 1995b, 1998c, 1998d, 2002d, 2005d); Goodey, Alderson, and Appelby (1999); Alderson, Madden, Oakley and Wilkins(1994); Alderson and Nicholson (1997). And Visit: https://eacmeweb.com

6 Note from Jamie: for an indication of the cumulative range of Priscilla’s work and collaborations over the years see, for example, Alderson (1991a, 1992b, 1992c, 1992d, 1993b, 1994, 1996a, 1998a, 2000a, 2000b, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b, 2004a, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008b, 2010a, 2011a, 2012a, 2012b, 2014a, 2014b, 2015a, 2018a, 2019a, 2020c); Alderson and Goodey (1998c); Alderson and Montgomery (1993); Farsides, Williams, and Alderson (2004); Williams, Alderson, and Farsides (2001, 2002).

7 Note from Jamie: see also Alderson (1982); NAWCH (1980), and Alderson and O’Toole (1981).

8 Note from Jamie: see also Alderson and Goodey (1996, 1998b, 1999).

9 Also, notably, the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit precursor to Cochrane the movement that promotes EBM, evidence based medicine.

10 See also in this series Archer and Morgan (2020); Rescher and Morgan (2020); Porpora and Morgan (2020); Norrie and Morgan (2021); Lawson and Morgan (2021a, 2021b); Jessop and Morgan (2022); Elder-Vass and Morgan (2022); Sayer and Morgan (2022).

11 Note from Jamie: for biographical social history of the time from an influential feminist see Rowbotham (2021). For realist discussion of various waves of feminism etc. see van Ingen, Grohmann, and Gunnarsson (2020); Saavedra and Pilgrim (2021); Gunnarsson, Dy, and van Ingen (2016). For an example of applied ecofeminism see Topić (2022).

12 Note from Priscilla: my emphasis.

13 Note from Jamie: emphasizing of course that ontology is still theory … theory whose situational argument and claims are different than epistemology.

14 Note from Priscilla: NHS Community Health Councils (CHCs) during 1974–2003 in England were composed of volunteers and local authority councillors. They officially represented patients, formally evaluated local health services and could work very effectively to raise standards of care. I was a CHC member 1976–1980.

15 Note from Priscilla: For the European Charter visit: https://each-for-sick-children.org/each-charter/ For the Australasian Charter visit: https://children.wcha.asn.au/sites/default/files/australian_version_final_210911web.pdf.

16 Note from Priscilla, details of the research and reports are on: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/social-science-research-unit/consent-and-shared-decision-making-healthcare/heart-surgery.

17 Note from Jamie: see, for example, Flatschart (2017).

18 Note from Priscilla: http://www.ellengoodey.co.uk/.

19 Note from Jamie: the exchange between David Pilgrim and Jason Summersell illustrates something of the range and different concerns and foci. For example, Pilgrim (2018); Summersell (2018).

20 Note from Jamie, visit: http://criticalrealismnetwork.org/.

21 Note from Jamie, there is, of course, also the Centre for Social Ontology currently hosted at Grenoble: https://socialontology.org/about/.

22 Note from Priscilla, recordings of the critical realism course are on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeod4lGHw8s18DVo7t-w5KQ.

23 Note from Priscilla: (http://criticalrealismnetwork.org/2020/10/30/a-beginners-guide-to-critical-realism/?doing_wp_cron=1640780754.6031429767608642578125).

24 Note from Jamie, for a special issue of Globalizations on this subject, including work from the well known realist Clive Spash see introduction Gills and Morgan (2021).

25 Note from Priscilla: I’m assuming readers are familiar with the four stage MELD dialectic, an acronym for 1M first moment, 2E second edge, 3L third level and 4D fourth dimension.

26 Note from Priscilla: https://www.jpost.com/diplomacy-and-politics/desmond-tutu-israel-guilty-of-apartheid-in-treatment-of-palestinians-344874.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Priscilla Alderson

Priscilla Alderson is Professor Emerita of Childhood Studies, Social Science Research Unit, Social Research Institute, University College London. She is the author of numerous books and articles. Additional detail is given in the interview.

Jamie Morgan

Jamie Morgan is Professor of Economic Sociology at Leeds Beckett University. He co-edits the Real-World Economics Review with Edward Fullbrook. He has published widely in the fields of economics, political economy, philosophy, sociology and international politics.